I am fascinated by song stories...the glimpses of composers' lives that their creations permit us to see, although oftentimes not so readily. Here are my my "scoops", posted here for your enjoyment, and for what I hope will feed our mutual curiosity about His musical purposes for us. Join me in this history adventure, as we find what circumstances coalesced to create the songs we all love! Play detective with me, and tell me what song "scoops" you may know that I don't...yet.

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Saturday, April 17, 2010

Down in the River to Pray – George H. Allan?

The traditional Appalachian song “Down in the River to Pray” is well-known, especially since Alison Krauss and the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”(released in 2000) popularized it. Yet, its composer remains a mystery, at least in some measure.

Research indicates the song was written by slaves in the 19th Century who worked in the fields. Other people believe it was perhaps a derivative of a native American tribal song that was adapted with Christian lyrics. It was reportedly published in Southern Harmony, a 19th Century hymnal, prior to many African-American spiritual songs being gathered and published during the Civil War and the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. And, what if someone told you it was written by George H. Allan in Nashville, Tennessee during slavery in the South, and was published in a slave songbook in 1867? Its appearance in “Slave Songs of the United States” in 1867, with words uniquely colloquial to black slave spiritual songs of that period, seems to point us in that direction to this song’s genealogy. The song had a different name, too, than the one by which we commonly know it today.The song as originally composed was known as “The Good Old Way”, and is attributed to a G.H. (George H.) Allan in the contents section of the slave song book of 1867. The song may also be known as “Come, Let Us All Go Down”, but has also been known as “Down to the River to Pray”, and alternately as “Down in the River to Pray”. However, as originally constructed by Mr. Allan (or perhaps some other contemporary, most likely a slave), the song entreats worshippers to go to a valley, not a river…

As I went down in de valley to pray,

Studying about dat good old way,

When you shall wear de starry crown,

Good Lord, show me de way.

O mourner, let's go down, let's do down, let's go down,

O mourner, let's go down, Down in de valley to pray.

What valley? If George Allan was a slave, or at least was a song collector in Nashville, one would suspect the valley is somewhere in Tennessee –lotsa valleys are there. As shown in the songbook, “The Good Old Way” was # 104, and was among a collection of spirituals in Part III of that book, in which the songs’ origins are the inland slave states of Tennessee, Arkansas, and the Mississippi River. So, perhaps slaves from Arkansas or the Mississippi Valley could have been the original composers, instead.

There’s lots more that’s intriguing about this song, and many questions linger. For those who changed the word ‘valley’ to ‘river’, what was significant about going to a river? And, for those who wanna go into the river to pray (and not just to the river), is that an implied message about baptism? Whatever the message, the composer was thinking of family, as mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers are addressed; I can imagine a slave family clinging to one another in this song’s embrace. And, we’re all sinners, the song’s conclusion reminds us. Isn’t it interesting that a song from some slaves still resonates in our culture 150 years later?

The following site is of the “Slave Songs of the U.S.”, edited by William Francis Allen, 1830-1889; Charles Pickard Ware, 1840-1921; and Lucy McKim Garrison 1842-1877; and published in 1867 by A. Simpson and Company: http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html. The song is # 104, listed with the title “The Good Old Way” and attributed to a Mr. G.H. Allan in Nashville. The copyright of the book in its electronic form (online) is owned by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

2 comments:

If you look at page XXXVII of the intro to the book where Mr. Allan and others are thanked, I think that it is pretty clear that the song was provided to the editors, along with other songs, by George H. Allan - and not that he wrote it. That his name appears after the song title in the index just indicates who provided the song to the editors. Also, by reading the intro I think the intention was to include songs song by slaves and songs clearly having orignated elsewhare and adopted by slaves were excluded. See pages VI, XVIII. Songes which seemed to have come from elsewhere but with no clear proof were left in.

Most likely there was a lot of cross polination and adaption by different communities.

I'd always wondered about the origins of that song, and found your post in a web search just now.I have a theory about the original wording. It may have been a reference to the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23: 4), where those families separated by slavery would be reunited and free. Following that logic, it could be a veiled reference to the Underground Railroad.Any way around it, it's a lovely song I'm sure we will be enjoying for many years to come. Thanks for the article!